Arson Fighters See Help In Cd-rom Kit

Only 16 percent of arsons in the United States are solved, and public safety types aren't happy about that.

That's why more than 400 firefighters, law enforcers, insurance people and prosecutors from around the state showed up in East Hartford Friday to preview a new technology its makers say will better train fire investigators. All hope that the CD-ROM kit, called interFIRE VR, will improve the odds.

The computer program puts the user in the middle of a fire investigation, a la virtual reality. With a twirl and click of the mouse, he or she can zoom in on a potentially significant charred item. The user also can turn the object around, pull back out and pan the whole burned room, all 360 degrees.

To add to the reality, there's deadline pressure: A clock ticks in the corner, and boxes turn red when a user is too slow or makes a bad decision.

``I just want [the] program,'' Lionel Dunlap, a firefighter in the Allingtown section of West Haven, said to a product backer who was showing it off on a laptop.

``I thought it was outstanding,'' he later said. ``I thought it was out of this world. This is what I've been looking for.''

The new product, which is under production, got high marks from the state's top cop, too.

Henry C. Lee, Connecticut's public safety commissioner and internationally known forensics expert, said the computer program is great because it forces users to make a series of decisions while investigating the ``crime scene,'' in this case a Cape-style house that burned in Braintree, Mass. And it quickly tells them if they made the right decision, he said.

Lee was a guest speaker along with George M. Reider Jr., the state's insurance commissioner.

Distribution is expected to start in June, and within a year, fire departments around the country will probably have them, said Joseph P. Toscano, fire investigation specialist and vice president of American Re-Insurance Co., one of four entities that worked together to produce the program. The kit is free of charge, with the exception of shipping and handling, because it evolved from an $800,000 federal grant.

The groups that produced interFIRE VR are American Re-Insurance, one of the largest writers of property and casualty reinsurance in the United States with offices in Hartford; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the National Fire Protection Association; and the U.S. Fire Administration.